A Day Off The Road

We have decided to stay here in Odessa for the day. There is a nice laundry room right outside our door and we are due. Norma is also refilling the DVR with her favorite shows. Speaking of which, does anyone watch "The Good Wife"? What a shocker!

StarChoice set up very quickly. I used the DishPointer site to get the Google Maps view of the RV park with it's highlighted pointer to the bird. The path went right over the peak of the roof of the building beside us so I pointed it there, adjusted the elevation slightly and there it was!

Just a comment on Shaw Direct (StarChoice). They are no longer supporting use of their system outside of canada. They have adopded the Bell Expressvu business mode and have limited use of their product to Canada. Well, they have not re-aimed the satellites so the signal is still there for the taking, just don't expect any help from Customer Service. They have not yet taken to cutting you off if they find you are outside of Canada but that could be coming.

Use DishPointer to get a good idea of where to point your dish but do not count on them for skew settings. They use a different calibration for their angles and they do not work on the Shaw dish. I have pdf documents for all the setup information including azimuth, elevation and skew for Canada, USA and Mexico. If you want me to email you a copy, let me know.

Odessa, TX

I slept like a log last night and did not wake up until almost 9:00 which is pretty remarkable seeing the parking lot is very close to I-20. I had a sliced tomato on toast and we hit the road. It was a long drive through scrub desert but to make up for it, the weather was perfect. We made two stops, one for gas and another for breakfast at Denny's.

There is a lot of oil exploration going on in this part of Texas and many temporary RV parks have sprung up along the side of the road, filled with workers in RV's and even tents. A lot of money is being made.

The other thing we noticed in this area was the huge number of wind generator towers producing power. Many square miles of them, all turning in the relentless Texas wind. I had read that Texas is currently in the forefront of alternative energy production which I found hard to believe given the old Texas reliance on oil and it's previous reluctance to enter into any discussion on wind and solar. It is refreshing to see this progressive change taking place.

We are in Odessa, in the Midessa Oil Patch RV Park. We are close to Midland (hence the name of the park) which is home to the George W. Bush Library. I could fall back on the old joke that it only contains comic books and a copy of "Dick and Jane" but I will refrain..... I don't know if I want to go or not, I had little respect for him as a President. I have visited only one Presidential library and that was Bill Clinton's, whom I have a great deal of respect for.

Tired

We are parked in Hudson Oaks, Texas, in an RV friendly Walmart on I-20 just west of Fort Worth, Texas. We just maneuvered through the Dallas / Fort Worth rush hour traffic and decided we were way too tired to continue to Abilene so we pulled off. I guess the thunderstorm kept me awake last night longer than I thought it did.

The weather is nice here, high 70's and blue sky. If it holds through tomorrow we may look for an RV park to spend a couple of days to work on our tans. Maybe near Abilene or Midland where the temps are promising to hit the low 80's.

All for now, time to find something to eat and crash.

On The Road Again And A Travel Warning To Canadians

We are up bright and early and will soon hit the road towards Abilene, Texas. "The prettiest town that I've ever seen".

The weather was terrible last night, typical for our travels. There was a huge thunder and lightening storm and the rain came in torrents. If any State is having drought problems, let us know and we will make a stop there for a very reasonable charge, results guaranteed. Well, maybe not so reasonable a charge, we may as well cash in on our Joe Btfsplk (Lil' Abner character) persona.

Canadians In The USA Take Note

My Blogging friend George (Our Awesome Travels) posted a link to this article concerning new cooperation between the USA and Canada regarding monitoring Canadians length of stay in the USA. We are limited to 180 days out of every "rolling" 12 month period (the 12 months starts whenever they say it starts) and the results of breaking these rules are pretty devastating and exposes you to severe penalties on both sides of the border. Do yourselves a favor and read the article.

I once got into an argument at the USA / Canada border when I was accused of being in the US longer than I said. We entered the US late Friday afternoon and left Sunday early afternoon. When they asked how long we were in the US I answered "two days" (less than 48 hours). They said that was three days and I had lied. The way they figure the "Day Count" is that any day you spend any part of in the US is a "day". This means if you enter the US at 11:00 PM, spend a couple of hours and leave at 1:00 AM, you have spent two days in the US and this counts towards your 180 day total.

Sightseeing

We passed through Jackson, Mississippi, the site of the June 12, 1963 murder of Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers by white supremacist and KKK member Byron De La Beckwith. Evers was active in the campaign to desegregate the University of Mississippi. De La Beckwith was unsuccessfully tried twice by all white juries in the 60's and it was not until 1994, after living as a free man for more than 30 years, that a racially mixed jury found him guilty of the murder. He died in prison in 2001. The murder and trial were portrayed in the 1996 movie, Ghosts Of Mississippi.

A little further along I-20 we came to the State Highway 154 site of the 1934 ambush and killing of Bonnie and Clyde. We did not stop but there is a museum in the site of a nearby restaurant where the pair stopped for takeout sandwiches just before their death. The Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum is run by the son of one of the lawmen who took part in the ambush. Bonnie was still clutching her half eaten sandwich when she was killed. It may not have been quite as glamorous a shootout as portrayed in the movies.

Shreveport. Louisiana

Yes, we are back in Louisiana! The couple of freezing nights we had convinced us to turn South for our return trip North. We have plenty of time and it would be great to find some place to stop and get a tan to show off at home.

Well, Shreveport is not the place! As soon as we arrived after a LONG day's drive and booked two nights at Diamond Jack's Casino RV Park it started pouring rain and we got news of a tornado/hailstorm watch for the area! Well, we are on the outskirts of it anyway. If we had taken the more northern route we would have been right in the midst of it!

It is a small RV park attached to the casino at $30 per night. We tried for an hour after the downpour stopped but could not find a path through the trees for the Starchoice. I then hooked up the local cable and it came in very fuzzy even after I added an amplifier to the system. I am going to have to do a serious rewiring job to the TV system this summer. It has one of those "push button boxes" that sends various signals (antenna, cable, VCR) to the three TV locations (front, rear, outside) but it has been giving us fuzzy signal problems for years. I bought a new "box" but have yet to dig into the maze of wires to install it. It has never been a big issue because the StarChoice works perfectly, except when we can't get it. Installing the new "box" involves enlarging the hole in the oak cabinetry, not something I am looking forward to as it will have to pass Norma's inspection, ie. look perfect.

Tonight we will go out to Copelands, a recommended Louisiana cooking restaurant for what passes for Cajun cooking in Northern Louisiana. Wish us luck, we need a break!

We Are Where?

Well, what are plans for if not to be changed? While Norma was getting her nails done this (yesterday) morning I scanned the weather sites for conditions in Memphis. We were looking forward to walking up and down Beale Street for a couple of nights searching out some Blues Music. However, the weather looked terrible in the immediate future. It was calling for rain and thunderstorms for the next three days and for nights below freezing. Not fun conditions to walk around town in, Blues or no Blues.

We came to the realization that we were setting our sights too far north so we decided to follow I-20 which goes west in a little more southerly direction. We set the GPS for Jackson, Mississippi and headed out. we will go to Shreveport, LA and spend a couple of days there looking for some food and entertainment before heading for Las Vegas where it should be warm.

We are just outside Jackson in a city or county park on a lake. Norma wanted to watch something on TV so we found a path through the trees that surround us and found the bird.

There is no Internet here so I will be Blog and email deprived. I am doing this Blog on Windows Live Writer and will send it in the morning after we leave.


Well, I did not post it this morning. It is 3:30 PM and we are parked for the night. I will fill you in later.

Macon, GA to Birmingham, AL, The Long Way

After the guy finished with the waxing we dumped, filled the water and headed out. We found a route on Google Maps that bypassed Atlanta and entered it into the Garmin. It was a beautiful drive through the back roads of Georgia and into Alabama (the blue line on the map below). The weather was perfect, sunny and warm. We stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch and then pushed on, not realizing we had gone through a time change until the arrival time on the Garmin stopped agreeing with our watches.

Google Maps calls it a four hour drive but as usual, we take a bit longer, in this case, we were on the road for almost six hours. A long drive for us.

We are in a WalMart on I-20, just a little short of Birmingham. Norma is over getting her nails "done" and I am about to let the barber in the attached strip mall try to rescue the terrible haircut I got almost two months ago. It is finally to the point where the sides and back need cut. LindaLee, where are you when I need you?

Birmingham is where Dr. Martin Luther King penned his famous "Letter From The Birmingham Jail" when he was arrested and jailed for organizing a non-violent demonstration for equality. The letter defends his policy of non-violent resistance to racism. The Letter itself is a must read!

Thanks to people like Dr. King, Life Is Good!

Savannah To Macon

It was a short drive of 160 miles yesterday. We were going to go as far as Atlanta but after looking at RV parks, we decided on a Passport America park in Macon. We needed an RV park as we needed to dump, refill the water and give the batteries a good soak charge.

We found a pull through and then Norma saw a sign in front of one of the parked RV's advertising cleaning and detailing. Well, there was no putting her off, she went over and asked him about hand waxing the rig. He wanted $10 per foot to wash the roof, sides and hand wax the whole thing. She said that $310 was way too much so he agreed to do it for $200. Still too much in my opinion but she agreed. He was an energetic worker and put in a full four hours with his wife helping, getting the roof and three sides done. The hot sun was on the forth side so he put that off till morning. It is 9:00 AM now and no sign of him yet. I hope he gets here in time to finish before checkout time or we will be stuck here for another night. Maybe there is something to see in downtown Macon. We are a little behind schedule compared to the last time we were through this part of The South but we will not be spending as much time in the places we have already seen.

OK, he just finished and it is only 10:15. Off to Birmingham, AL. Talk to ya'all later.

Savannah's Dirty Little Secret

You will not find this on any travel brochures or visitor websites but Savannah has a hidden little secret lurking in many of the old buildings on or near the riverfront. For decades before the Civil War, Savannah was the most active US port for the slave import business. Most slave's first closeup glimpse of "The Land Of The Free" was the Savannah seaport.

The Bay Lane buildings of what is now the City Market were the former center for slave trade. There is a movement to preserve the former trading floor of the Montmollin Building which has not been met with much enthusiasm from city officials who would rather forget this unfortunate period of history. I think the memory should be kept alive for if we forget our history we are more likely to repeat it. "Yes, we used to engage in slavery but we stopped, so we are good people now" is similar to "Yes, I used to beat my wife/girlfriend but I stopped, so I am a good person now".

On the top floor of this building on one infamous day in 1859, known as "The Weeping Time", 436 human beings were sold in the largest slave auction in the history of the United States. Young, strong, healthy males went for $600.